There is no such thing as one or two REAL knife attacks. They come in all shapes and sizes, quiet, calm, angry or crazed. They come from all different directions, high, low, front, back, sides, with different motives or no real motive at all, that makes any sense. They use no skill or different levels of preparation and skill.

They attack with one simple slash or stab then leave, or sometimes remain with tens or even over a hundred. There are entire profiles and psychologies, motives and methods at play with knife attackers.

People often think they know and they concoct what their version of a REAL knife attack is, but they don't know. There is no such thing as one or two REAL knife attacks. Prepare mentally and physically instead for a much bigger problem than one or two "real" knife attacks.

The uppercut hooking stab is one attack often declared by the naive as "unreal." These people often ridicule folks who practice to counter it. Let me tell you a Marine story about it. The stab that many people declare "not real?" There were a considerable amount of knife fights in the Pacific in WW II and the Marines set out to investigate what they could learn about them after the war. With interviews they discovered that the common and most successful knife move was...you guessed it, the uppercut hooking stab into the belly.

The curious thing was, this move was NOT in their knife training. It is a "soft tissue stab." Enters the stomach, can puncture the diaphragm and if the knife is long enough, can even get the bottom of the heart.

This whole process was not trained. Yet, most Marines under combat stress resorted to this very natural stab in the study. It was...they described it as ...a “NATURAL” movement.

As a result, they put the move into some knife training doctrine. (I do know though, through the years, this and other knife moves slowly disappeared). I did some knife training with a former Rhodesian commando in the 1990s and this uppercut move was in their "knife 101." Some smart people are trained to do it.

As an aside - they also did learn that many times the Marines would lose their knives upon this this stab, as the Japanese soldiers, probably already in motion trying dodge the knife, carried a lot of inertia with them.

The knife embedded in the torso as the enemy turned away, maybe their arms swinging too? And it was the Marines' forearm muscles versus the Japanese full body weight and dodging motion - and the Marines would frequently lose the knife grip. So there was a re-supply of knives available in barrels in some locations. (Thus the importance of the lanyard.)

The reason for these close encounters in the Pacific is another long historical, essay. There are not many knife fights in modern military history.

But the moral of the story is that the uppercut hooking knife attack is actually quite natural and certainly can happen, even from totally untrained people. And trained people.

LEARN RESPONSES TO IT! The uppercut, hooking knife stab, single or multiple stab attempts, is just as real as any other knife stab.

I know a lot here never completely let their guard down. How many of us still scan the crowd around the restaurant we are about to enter when off duty? How many continue scanning after entering, sitting down, ordering, eating, paying and leaving. After over 35 years, I still do it. And it paid off one time when I was in the back of a 7/11 and a guy walked in and tried to rob the clerk. From the back I heard the door opening, watched in the mirrors they had back then, and saw him pull a bowie knife and threaten the female clerk. Didn't need to shoot him, as he saw my .45 was bigger than his knife, I guess. Or maybe it was the badge on my belt, that was showing. These incidents happen anytime, anywhere, on or off duty. Be alert.